The invention relates generally to methods and systems for distributed computing, and more particularly to methods and systems for distributed computing in telematics devices.
Distributed computing is a field of technology where a computational task is divided into a plurality of sub-tasks. Further, the plurality of sub-tasks are distributed among a plurality of computing devices such that one or more of the plurality of sub-tasks are processed in parallel to determine sub-solutions corresponding to the plurality of sub-tasks. The parallel processing of one or more of the plurality of sub-tasks is typically followed by combining the sub-solutions to generate a solution of the computational task.
Furthermore, telemetry, synonymous with telematics, is a technology that facilitates remote measurement and reporting of information of interest to a system designer or operator. Moreover, telematics entails an integrated usage of telecommunications and informatics, also known as ICT (Information and Communications Technology). More specifically, telematics is a science of sending, receiving and storing information via telecommunication devices. Recently, telematics has been applied in global positioning system technology (GPS) where the GPS technology is integrated with computers and mobile communications technology in automotive navigation systems. Accordingly, while the term “telemetry” has most narrowly evolved to refer to the use of telematics systems in road vehicles, the telematics industry is not limited to automotive applications. Other applications of telematics systems are also being studied and developed for monitoring water and air pollution, for medical informatics and healthcare, and for distance learning.
Telematics systems are often limited in computational power and available bandwidth. Since telematics systems are either installed at factories, or are purchased off the shelf, and are rarely upgraded, the computational capability of these telematics devices is limited by their initial computational capability. Also, while normal computing systems have enough power resources that allow the computing systems to operate continuously, a few telematics systems include an internal battery, or an external power resource potentially limiting the operation of the telematics devices. Moreover, external power resources may not be readily available to telematics systems at all places to perform processor-intensive computational tasks that require substantive power and time. Also, telematics devices are expected to process intensive computational tasks including video data, audio data, and the like, it is imperative to use high end processing telematics devices.
Further, while normal distributed computing devices may have enough power resources and intensive computational capability, the normal distributed computing devices may be constrained by a limited number of communication channels or communication modes available for communicating with other computing devices or computing resources. However, telematics devices use varied number of communication channels or communication modes for communicating with other computing devices, computing resources or other telematics devices. The communication modes, for example, may include, a Bluetooth, a satellite network, a cellular network, a private network, Wi-Fi, and other communication modes.
It is therefore desirable to have a blend of distributed computing and telematics systems to enable parallel execution of the plurality of sub-tasks, thereby resulting in optimized and distributed power and processing capabilities of the telematics systems. More particularly, it is desirable to develop distributed computing systems and methods configured to process a computationally intensive task by distributing a plurality of sub-tasks corresponding to the computationally intensive task among a plurality of telematics devices, while understanding the speed and cost tradeoffs associated with the plurality of telematics devices.